Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | iHeartRadio | TuneIn | RSS | More
In this episode, we perceive a challenging situation, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 359, penned by Maamoolanaar. Set in the ‘Paalai’ or ‘Drylands landscape’, the verse etches the many faces of this domain.
”பனி வார் உண்கணும், பசந்த தோளும்,
நனி பிறர் அறியச் சாஅய், நாளும்,
கரந்தனம் உறையும் நம் பண்பு அறியார்,
நீடினர்மன்னோ, காதலர்” என நீ
எவன் கையற்றனை? இகுளை! அவரே
வானவரம்பன் வெளியத்து அன்ன நம்
மாண் நலம் தம்மொடு கொண்டனர் முனாஅது,
அருஞ் சுரக் கவலை அசைஇய கோடியர்,
பெருங் கல் மீமிசை, இயம் எழுந்தாங்கு,
வீழ் பிடி கெடுத்த நெடுந் தாள் யானை
சூர் புகல் அடுக்கத்து மழை மாறு முழங்கும்
பொய்யா நல் இசை மா வண் புல்லி,
கவைக் கதிர் வரகின் யாணர்ப் பைந் தாள்
முதைத் சுவல் மூழ்கிய, கான் சுடு குரூஉப் புகை
அருவித் துவலையொடு மயங்கும்
பெரு வரை அத்தம் இயங்கியோரே!
In this trip to the familiar domain, we get to see many sights, as we listen to the confidante say these words to the lady, when the man continues to remain parted away, having left in search of wealth:
“Saying, ‘Does my lover prolong his stay, because he doesn’t know of my state, wherein my kohl-streaked eyes shed tears, my arms are coated with pallor, and how I have lost my health for all to see, and how every day, I hide that to keep others from knowing?’, why do you feel helpless, my friend! Indeed, he has taken away your fine beauty, akin to the town of ‘Veliyam’, ruled by Vanavaramban, along with him, to the drylands amidst the tall mountains, where a long-trunked male elephant mourns its lost mate in those cloud-covered spaces, where heavenly spirits reside, and trumpets aloud, akin to the music that rises atop huge hills, when musicians play on their instruments, and where the spray of cascades is fused with the smoke of forests being burnt, in those ancient highlands, where green stalks of thick, luxuriant crops of millet are grown, in the land of the courageous Pulli, who has unceasing, fine fame!”
Time to traverse those varied paths to this known space! The confidante starts by repeating the lady’s words as she laments about her state, because the man had left her, leaving her condition open for all to see but yet how she tries to hide that from everyone. This tells us the separation could have happened before the lady’s marriage with the man. Consoling the lady, the confidante talks about how the man had taken the lady’s beauty akin to the town of Veliyam, ruled by Vanavaramban, and had gone to the drylands space amidst the hills in the land of Pulli. She concludes by describing this place as one where an elephant trumpets aloud, when its mate is killed, sounding like the horns of musicians, and also a place where the spray of cascades fuses with the smoke that rises from burning forests, so as to cultivate millets on those ancient highlands.
Doesn’t this sound very much a mountain space? Why is this classified as the ‘desert’ or ‘drylands region’? Only to tell us that there were no designated place as ‘Paalai’ or ‘Drylands’ in Sangam times but only the transformation of ‘Kurinji’ and ‘Mullai’ lands or ‘Mountains’ or ‘Forests’, when the rains do not favour them. Likewise, the lady’s mind without receiving the rain of love, blooming in the mountains, or the shower of being with a beloved, in the forests, can only see a desert of separation before her. A way to say how we see the world is all in our mind!
